How a Lifelong Chubby Girl Lost 40lbs in a Year

Menu

Diet Failure and Changing Strategy

Most dedicated dieters have crashed and burned at least once. I’ve failed countless times! This last round of HCG was another bungee jump. I started around 137lbs and got down to 133lbs in a week. Then cheated and cheated and quit. I didn’t weigh in for a while but when I finally did I was 140lbs. No big deal! Time to change strategy.

The body is kind of tricky. It seems like doing the same thing over and over stops producing change or becomes impossible at a certain point. This last time, I was really suffering on the 500 calorie per day HCG diet- beyond acceptable suffering. So I’ve changed strategy!

I have a couple friends at work who are also very dedicated to getting into shape. We are doing healthy eating and exercise with cash penalties for cheats! Here are the rules:

Three square meals a day of mostly meats, vegetables and fruit. Some very small amounts of lean carbs are okay- like a sprinkle of quinoa in salad or whatever. Snacks can be fruits, veggies and if we are dying, Think Thin bars. Quantities of meat, veggies and fruits are unlimited, any time of day. All fruits and vegetables are approved. Salad dressings or other condiments should be low or nonfat and low or sugar free. If it takes a good dressing to make a salad edible, use it. This diet isn’t meant to make us suffer.

No nuts, but low-fat nut/seed/peanut spreads are okay in moderation- like 2 tbsp once in a while. No dairy except a dash of cream in coffee or a tiny bit of cheese on eggs if you skip the coffee cream. No alcohol. One cheat day per week allowed! You choose which day and it doesn’t have to be the same every week.

At least twenty minutes of exercise per day five days a week.

Each and every diet and/or exercise cheat costs either one dollar paid to each of the other girls next time you see them (no avoiding!) or twenty additional exercise minutes paid the same day as the violation. Cheats count by serving. If you eat pizza for example, you pay each girl a dollar per slice or twenty extra exercise minutes per slice.

Once we get down to our realistic goal sizes we are going shopping! No shopping until then- why waste money on temporary sizes anyway?

So far I’ve lost 5lbs in this game and I’ve made a positive balance of $1. Can’t beat that! It’s such a relief to be back to 135.2lbs. That puts my total weightloss at 42.5lbs! I want to get down to a loose fitting size 4 and I think I can do it within two weeks. I’d love to weigh 127.6 to make my total weightloss over 50lbs. I know I can do it; I’m only 7.6lbs away!

Let me know if you want to play the game. You’ll need a local partner. In choosing a partner try to find someone who is already into dieting rather than making your husband do it, if he has no personal interest. Should your husband want to do it, trade back rubs or some currency other than money from your joint bank account. Dieting partnerships are usually doomed for failure because inevitably one person will quit and then the other guy can easily give up. You might want to set a time period for the game or you can do what we are doing with the size goals. So far this cash penalty method has been very workable! Millions have paid Jenny Craig to lose weight, why not pay your best friends? Oh and the other point is honesty. I ate about twenty almonds today and I haven’t told my friends yet. Nuts aren’t allowed. So even though I have told myself twenty nuts isn’t worth the dollars and they don’t really need to know, I am going to tell them right after this blog post. Especially before they read it. And those damn nuts cost me two bucks. But it’s worth it. One lie can destroy the whole game. Don’t lie! The almonds I ate were covered in cheddar-jalapeño seasoning. Time for me to get on the stationary bike and jam out. I’d wish you good luck, but you already know you’re lucky. We are all lucky.